Disclaimer: I own nothing.
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It had been so close - too close.
Thanks to Agent Reynolds, they'd gotten to Gillian before the copycat killer could get away with her.
Upon arriving at the scene, Cal had sprinted from the car and headed to the prone body on the ground.
Gillian had startled and fought when she felt someone touching her, but Cal's voice and hands assured her of his familiarity, and she couldn't help bursting into tears as she sobbed out 'I didn't see him'. Cal just pulled her into his embrace.
Holding onto him hard, Gillian allowed herself this safe haven.
Gillian's whisked off by doctors in Emergency, but Cal remains as Agent Reynolds returns to the Lightman Group.
When Cal enters Gillian's hospital room, he sits on the edge of her bed and utters his apology: 'I'm sorry luv.'
He's sorry for her injury, but not only that. He's sorry that a plan he put into works resulted in her getting harmed. That wasn't supposed to happen.
When the phone rang, Gillian reached out for his arm, yearning for his touch.
Standing up, Cal took the call near her head, constantly touching Gillian's arm and shoulder, as if to make sure she is still there and okay.
Realising that he's needed back at work, he drops an absent kiss on Gillian's head. Stopping at the door, he turns to her - needing to check on her that one last time. 'I'm fine,' she says softly, attempting a smile.
When Gillian arrived back the Lightman Group, and Cal leaves the Cube as the team peruses the parole hearing footage, Cal makes sure that Gillian is sitting, feelings of guilt still rushing through him. Having identified the husband as the copycat killer, he brushes her shoulder on his way out the door.
Gillian's having nothing of it though. When she insists on coming with them to see the copycat killer's wife and original victim, all Cal can do is roll his eyes and keep her close as they leave.
When the men dash out to Meadow Lane, Virginia, Gillian remains with Michelle.
After receiving the tired call from Cal - 'We got him luv' - she accepts the FBI escort back to the Lightman Group where she struggles to her office, a dull pain throbbing throughout her body.
After 'advising' Agent Reynolds of his new position here at the Lightman Group, Cal is out the door, heading for his injured colleague's office.
He finds said person leaning back on her chair, eyes closed in pain, arm out of the sling.
Sliding onto the edge of her desk to stand in front of her, Cal droops to her level.
'Let's get you home.'
Groaning and mumbling in pain, Gillian opens her eye a crack, before taking his outstretched hand and rising.
Allowing herself to rest against his solid form for just a second, she breathes in the smell that is Cal Lightman, before standing up fully.
Cal gathers up her things, before escorting her out, his hand never leaving its firm position at the small of her back.
Alec's out of town on 'work' and so Cal just takes Gillian home with him, props her in his spare room with a shirt of his to sleep in, and pumps her full of painkillers as the day finally catches up with her and she sleeps.
Standing in the doorframe an hour later on his way to bed, Cal looks down at the strong woman in front of him. She shouldn't have had to go through this. She's got enough on her plate as it is.
With a heavy sigh, he pushes off the doorframe as he prepares to head for his bedroom.
Sleep was a long time coming.